Rafa Undecided On Who To Make Newcastle Captain

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

8:49am Sunday, July 17th, 2016

Commented 15 times

Rafa Benitez still has not decided who will be the Newcastle captain for next season and he will probably offer the captaincy to Moussa Sissoko when he returns from his summer break, as an enticement for him to stay on at Newcastle.

But when you hear some of the comments Moussa has made it seems like the French International is adamant he wants to join a bigger club than Newcastle this summer.

Jamaal Lascelles arriving for the game yesterday Moussa Sissoko may want to move to Crystal Palace where the news today is that Alan Pardew is interested in yet another Newcastle player.

But Palace have little chance of signing Moussa since the 26 year-old wants to join a club that plays regularly in the Champions League and Palace don’t do that.

Benitez said after the game yesterday that Aleksandar Mitrovic has suffered a slight knock while Rolando Aarons was taken off immediately after he scored his goal as a precaution – and he seemed to have a bit of cramp.

This is what Benitez said after the game about Jamaal and the Newcastle captaincy:

“It was the first game and he was on the pitch.” “We will have to think carefully and choose the right one.”

“I haven’t decided on the captaincy yet.” “We have to keep working hard and see how they react every day.”

“We were trying to manage the minutes as we have some knocks.” “We have an idea about the minutes and the positions but it is about how much we have to work during games.”

“They both done well (Mitrovic and Aarons) and we know that they can both score goals.” “Now the main thing is to continue doing what we have to do.”

Lascelles is a huge fan favorite for the captain’s job and he showed last season he has real leadership skills on and off the pitch.

15 comments so far

It would be interesting to see Lascelles as captain. He certainly has the vocal nature and the willingness to call out and/or support his team mates.

However, he has a chequered career in terms of performing consistently. He was in and out of Forests first 11 during his last season there due to being inconsistent.

He does seem to be the only real leading contender within the squad, unless Gini stays and is committed for a full season. A talented and first teamer centre half or midfielder with greater experience would be preferable for the captains role.

Certainly shouldn’t be Sissoko. We have had a want away as captain for the last 2 years, and it hardly proved to be inspirational. Moussa is no more vocal than Colo, and shouldn’t even be in the discussion should he stay.

Pardew is just becoming an irritant devoid of original thinking if the Sunday papers are to be believed. I didn’t realise that Palace were in the Champions League either. So lazy Journalism again.

Crystal Palace boss Alan Pardew wants to reunite Newcastle’s Moussa Sissoko with Yohan Cabaye – but won’t meet the Toon’s supposed £35million asking price. Midfield powerhouse Sissoko – a star for hosts and losing finalists France at Euro 2016 – played alongside international teammate Cabaye in their days under Pardew on Tyneside. Sources say Pardew is “very interested” in Sissoko, 26, who is eager to leave Newcastle following relegation. But the Geordies have slapped a potentially prohibitive valuation on a player who cost only £1.5million when Pardew signed him from Toulouse in January 2013.

Slank, I think if Janmaat stays, then Gamez will play left back with Dummet providing cover at centre half and left back with Haidara. Sterry, Mbabu and Anita as right back cover.

If Janmaat leaves, Gamez moves to right back. So either Dummet moves to the main left back, with Haidara as back up/competition, meaning we need two centre halves. Alternatively We bring in a left back, leaving Dummett covering centre half and left back with Haidara, and another specialist centre half coming in.

Let’s be honest – we couldn’t have had a much worse captain than Colo, so almost anybody is going to be an improvement. He was a good player (mostly), and seemed to have the ear of the top echelon, but on-field he showed no leadership qualities, and his commitment to the club in general was often questionable. To me there isn’t a stand-out candidate, so I see why Rafa is hedging his bets. This time last year I said our next captain would be Dutch, with Krul, Janmaat, de Jong and Gini all in the frame as I saw it then. Got that wrong. So who knows.

Going back a couple of threads there was Rafa’s quote on Thauvins future. It wasn’t actually a response to a question about Thauvin (or Wijnaldum as some other articles are stating). The question was along the lines of “you have 27 players over here and more at home that didn’t make it, are you going to have to sell some players before you bring more in?”. I saw the question posed on SSN, just shows how people turn an innocent general answer into a specific about one player

I think when Lascelles said “he said he was thinking of making me captain” he meant in the context of yesterday. I seriously doubt Benitez believes the captaincy will be any sort of incentive to Sissosko to stay, and such an offer, should it be made public, it would be damaging. Another silent, self-obsessed, wantaway captain? It makes no sense at all.

Yeah I agree about Willo, at the time we let him go I didn’t welcome it at all (not back patting myself btw) as we were short of cover. I think Saylor was injured and we only had Colo, Mbemba and Lascelles at CB so letting Willo go was insanity especially in the midst of a relegation battle.

He never was the perfect footballer, and he epitomised a style of football none of us wanted, but he would have been a solid CB for us this season. No point crying over spilled milk but it was, as you say, short sighted.

I must confess to knowing little to nothing about Findlay. He’s got a season’s worth of SPL experience which could stand him in good stead and he’s only a youngster at 20 so maybe a season on loan to League One, or maybe back north of the border at another SPL club would do him some good.

On the topic of the captaincy, I’d build the team around Lascelles and give the captaincy to him – which is why I find our pursuit of another CB who may well challenge Lascelles for a starting berth to be quite odd.

Failing that, there are a few other contenders – Colback for one. Mbemba is another. Another person who could make a good captain given his background as a seemingly strong leader is Jesus Gamez – though he has no background in English football, all the reports on him indicate he is a strong presence in any dressing room and leads by example on the pitch.

Would be an out there option, and my first choice would still be Lascelles but stranger things have happened. I wouldn’t use it as any incentive for Sissoko or Gini as I wouldn’t want to keep either player in the squad anyway.

Celtic have a good young left back as well, Kieran Tierney. There were rumours of Arsenals interest a few months ago, but he would offer a good back up/competition to Gamez for a year or so before growing into the role and making it his own.

I would like to see Haidara and Mbabu on either side of the centre defenders as they are both good going forward (defensively not so good however) but unfortunately both seem injury prone, certainly at the moment.

I’m not sure on Lascelles as captain, as I said before I think people are letting sentiment over Lascelles war cry last season cloud their judgement. Your captain should be almost undroppable and I don’t think Lascelles is quite there yet, just because we like him it doesn’t mean there aren’t better CB’s out there who can do a job. A Mbemba Lascelles partnership would be great, but I don’t think this vitally important promotion season is the time to cement it.

Talking about the CB position, surely we need two more in? Colo, Taylor and Williamson have departed, all yet to be replaced. Sir Bobby used to say you needed at least four in your squad who you could play with confidence. You can’t seriously count Dummett or Janmaat because they are unknown quantities in that position, in reality. Hayden appears to have been signed as a DM, and the likes of Satka and Good are a million miles off the pace as it stands. It needs to be addressed.

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